Info about Harold Halibut:

Official game description:
Harold Halibut is a handmade narrative game about friendship and life on a city-sized spaceship submerged in an alien ocean.  
It’s been 250 years since your home - an ark-like spaceship - fled an Earth on the verge of cold war to find a habitable planet to preserve the human race.  
You are Harold, a young lab assistant for the ship’s lead scientist, Jeanne Mareaux. While most of the ship’s inhabitants have reconciled themselves to a life lived aboard the sunken ship, Mareaux still works tirelessly to find a way for the ship to leave the planet and find a new, dryer home.  
But the weird, wonderful and diverse people of the FEDORA I keep Harold busy too… Until one fateful encounter plunges Harold into a world no one could have imagined - and one that may hold the key to Mareaux’s re-launch plans.  
Join Harold as he explores a vibrant retro-future world in his quest to find the true meaning of ‘home’.
Features:
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*   Unique Stop-Motion Aesthetics: Every element in Harold Halibut is a tactile and meticulously hand-crafted using traditional sculpting and model-making techniques.  
*   Full Voice Acting: All of the Fedoras' wonderful inhabitants come to life with full English voiceover, elevating the game's narrative to cinematic proportions.  
*   An expansive Character Ensemble: Meet a variety of unique characters and get to know their personalities, quirks and stories through meaningful conversations.  
*   A riveting cinematic storyline: Journey through a captivating narrative, underscored by a carefully orchestrated script that blends drama, humor, and suspense.

Release date: 16 Apr, 2024

Categories: Single-player Story, Walking Simulator, Exploration, Task-based Gameplay, Environmental Storytelling, Mini-game Collection


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Endearing, relatable character development (weight 0.96): The game features endearing and relatable characters, especially the protagonist Harold, who undergoes significant development. Players connect with the characters on an emotional level, appreciating their unique personalities, backstories, and interactions. Many reviewers expressed a strong attachment to Harold and other characters, highlighting the game's success in creating memorable and impactful relationships.
- Unique, stunning claymation art style (weight 0.94): The game boasts a unique and visually stunning art style, often described as claymation or stop-motion animation. Reviewers consistently praise the handcrafted aesthetic, attention to detail, and immersive environments. The game's visuals are a major draw, creating a charming and memorable experience.
- Relaxing, enjoyable, unique experience (weight 0.86): The game provides a relaxing and enjoyable experience, offering a break from more stressful or challenging games. Reviewers appreciate the game's unique qualities, creative design, and overall polish. The game's ability to create a lasting impression and evoke a sense of wonder is also frequently mentioned.
- Captivating, emotionally resonant story (weight 0.37): The game features a captivating and emotionally resonant story that explores themes of self-discovery, connection, and purpose. Reviewers appreciate the well-crafted narrative, surprising plot twists, and thought-provoking dialogue. The story's ability to evoke a range of emotions, from laughter to tears, contributes to a deeply engaging experience.
- Excellent, atmospheric music and sound (weight 0.11): The game features excellent music and sound design that complements the visuals and enhances the overall atmosphere. Reviewers describe the soundtrack as weird, haunting, beautiful, and perfectly fitting the game's tone. The audio elements contribute significantly to the immersive and emotional experience.

Common complaints:
- Slow pace, tedious backtracking (weight 0.84): Many reviewers found the game's pacing to be slow and tedious due to excessive backtracking, fetch quests, and drawn-out dialogues. This made the game feel longer than necessary and negatively impacted player engagement, with some comparing it to a 'walking simulator'.
- Lacks engaging gameplay elements (weight 0.63): Reviewers frequently criticized the game for lacking substantial gameplay and challenge, describing it as simple and repetitive. The core gameplay loop often involves basic movement and interactions, with minimal puzzle-solving or meaningful player agency.
- Frequent bugs and glitches (weight 0.58): Several reviewers reported encountering bugs, glitches, and technical issues that hindered their experience. These included game crashes, clipping issues, and problems with character movement or interactions, sometimes making the game unplayable.
- Unappealing visual presentation (weight 0.52): Some reviewers found the game's visuals unappealing due to issues like excessive depth of field, artifacting in cutscenes, and clipping problems. These visual flaws detracted from the overall presentation and immersion.
- Weak story and dialogue (weight 0.3): The game's story and dialogue were criticized for being uninteresting, poorly written, and excessively long. Reviewers noted issues such as predictable plot twists, shallow characters, nonsensical conversations, and a lack of depth or impact.
- Shallow, uninspired themes (weight 0.11): Some reviewers felt the game failed to explore its themes in a meaningful way, resulting in a shallow and uninspired experience. The game's tone was also criticized for being inconsistent and confusing.
- Problematic achievement system (weight 0.03): The game has issues with achievements, including missable achievements, a single save file, and chapter select overwriting stats. This makes it difficult and frustrating to complete the game and unlock all achievements.
- Clunky controls and movement (weight 0.03): The game has clunky controls and movement, making it difficult to navigate and interact with the world. This can lead to frustration and a lack of agency for the player.
- Hardware compatibility issues (weight 0.03): The game has compatibility issues with certain hardware configurations, such as integrated GPUs and the Steam Deck. This can result in graphical problems, crashes, and an unplayable experience for some users.
- Lacks inventory and map (weight 0.02): The game lacks an inventory system and a map, making it difficult to navigate and interact with the world. This can lead to frustration and confusion, especially in the early stages of the game.

Gameplay feedback:
- Limited interactivity, repetitive traversal (weight 0.35): The game world is not very interactive, with limited environmental interaction and repetitive map traversal. Some reviewers found exploring the ship daily pointless as nothing new happens, and the transportation system becomes repetitive quickly.
- Linear story, choices don't matter (weight 0.31): The game features a linear narrative with dialogue choices that have minimal impact on the story's outcome. Some reviewers felt like they were watching an animated show rather than playing a game due to the non-impactful choices.
- Playing as Harold, the handyman (weight 0.1): The game follows Harold, a handyman on a spaceship, as he performs his duties and interacts with the environment. The narrative includes the All Water Corporation's secret projects and a mysterious message from Earth.
- Simple, easy objectives (weight 0.03): Objectives are simple and clearly listed, typically involving going to a location and talking to characters. The game is easy to understand and impossible to lose, removing any need for puzzle-solving.
- Mini-games punctuate the narrative (weight 0.02): The game includes mini-games like arcade simulations and a musical sequence for alien communication, serving to punctuate the narrative. These mini-games add variety to the gameplay experience.
- Side quests, mail delivery (weight 0.01): The game features side quests, such as delivering mail, which can involve repetitive tasks. One reviewer encountered a bug where they couldn't deliver a specific letter.
- Tasks: stones, fish, filters (weight 0.01): The game involves tasks such as examining mineral stones, feeding fish, and cleaning filters, alongside the main story. The story also involves exploring a previously unknown cave after encountering a human-like fish species.
- Story lacks conflict (weight 0.01): The story focuses on a boring character discovering themselves and some philosophy. The story, while unique, lacks conflict or consequence.

Performance notes:
- Inconsistent performance across devices (weight 0.08): The game's performance varies significantly. Some players report smooth gameplay on Steam Deck and Windows, while others experience stutters and frame drops, even on high-end PCs, particularly with Nvidia GPUs. This suggests optimization issues that need addressing.
- Animation and visual anomalies (weight 0.03): Some players have noticed animation issues and visual anomalies. While some smearing issues were resolved in the full game, animation 'jankiness' persists, potentially clashing with the intended visual style.
- Demanding hardware requirements (weight 0.03): The game's clay-based 3D models and lighting effects contribute to demanding hardware requirements. Some users report the game pushing their GPUs to maximum capacity, even on relatively powerful systems.
- Cutscene glitches and loading stalls (weight 0.02): A few players encountered specific glitches during cutscenes, such as pixelization or loading stalls. These issues, while not widespread, can disrupt the narrative flow and require workarounds like restarting the game.
- Conversation and sprint issues (weight 0.02): Some players have reported issues with conversation speed and sprint functionality, particularly in the later parts of the game. These control and pacing issues can negatively impact the player experience.
- Detailed stop motion animation (weight 0.01): The stop motion animation is well done and detailed.
- Translation clarity issues (weight 0.01): The Simplified Chinese translation has some clarity issues, with unclear options and untranslated sentences. This can create confusion and hinder the experience for Chinese-speaking players.
- Save data management issues (weight 0.01): One reviewer had to manually delete local save data to start a new game. This is an inconvenience that should be addressed with a proper in-game option.
- 720p resolution with scaling filter (weight 0.01): Setting the resolution to 720p and using the Deck's scaling filter to sharpens the image.
- Masterfully technically executed (weight 0.01): The game is masterfully technically executed.

Recommendations:
- Unique art, story, chill vibe (weight 0.68): The game is frequently recommended for its unique artistic style, compelling narrative, and relaxing, meditative atmosphere. Many suggest it's best suited for players who appreciate story-driven experiences and are willing to embrace a slower pace. Some reviewers highlight its emotional impact and memorable moments.
- Immerse yourself in narrative (weight 0.55): Some reviewers suggest that the game's story and characters are best appreciated by fully immersing oneself in the dialogue and world. They recommend patience and attention to detail to truly connect with the narrative. Some reviewers suggest that the story has value, but the gameplay is tedious.
- Buy the game! (weight 0.17): Some reviews consist of simple, direct recommendations to buy the game, sometimes with enthusiastic language. While positive, these lack specific details about the game's merits.
- Support the developers (weight 0.05): Some reviewers express excitement for future projects from the developer, praising their debut effort and encouraging players to support them. This sentiment reflects a positive outlook on the studio's potential and a desire to see more unique and bold games from them.
- Game of the year! (weight 0.03): Some reviewers make hyperbolic claims about the game's quality, such as calling it the best game of the year or giving it a perfect score. While these statements indicate strong enjoyment, they lack specific details and context.
- Enjoy the adventure! (weight 0.02): These points contain emotional language without specific details about the game's mechanics or features. They express general enjoyment and encouragement without providing constructive feedback.
- Enjoyed the ending (weight 0.02): This point focuses on a specific aspect of the game (the ending) and expresses a desire for a sequel. While positive, it lacks broader context and specific details about the game's overall quality.
- Harold becomes likable (weight 0.01): This point focuses on the likability of a character and the value of exploring the game world. While relevant, it lacks broader context and specific details about the game's overall quality.

Other player notes:
- Intriguing retro-futuristic water planet setting (weight 0.08): The game is set in a retro-futuristic alternate Cold War era, aboard the spaceship Fedora, which crashes on an alien water planet after leaving Earth in 1970. Survivors establish an underwater ecosystem, coexisting with sea creatures, creating a unique and intriguing environment.
- Slow-paced, 10-hour narrative (weight 0.03): The game is a roughly 10-hour experience that takes its time establishing the story, setting, and characters. The countdown and larger story unfold independently of the gameplay.
- Playable animated series (weight 0.03): The game is described as more of a playable animated series or interactive movie/book. Some reviewers found the overall idea interesting, but the interest ended there.
- Story about loss and self-discovery (weight 0.03): The story revolves around themes of loss, self-discovery, and difficult decisions, prompting reflection on the meaning of life. It also involves a message from Earth, thought to be dying, which motivates the characters' actions.
- Focus on narrative and characters (weight 0.02): Reviewers express a deep emotional connection to the game, its story, and characters. The game acknowledges its focus on character interaction and narrative over traditional gameplay mechanics.
- Explores environmental and ethical themes (weight 0.01): The game explores themes of environmental harm caused by human activities and delves into the motivations behind people's actions. It reflects on the impact of construction, excavation, and waste on nature.
- Noteworthy game soundtrack (weight 0.01): The game's soundtrack is a noteworthy element, enhancing the overall experience.
- Blends 70s/80s era aesthetics (weight 0.01): The game incorporates advertising reminiscent of the 1970s USA and arcade machines from the 1980s. This creates a unique blend of different eras and generations within the game's world.
- Underwater world is like aquarium (weight 0.01): The underwater world is depicted as an aquarium, with each module representing an aspect of society, presented ironically or emotionally.
- Lacks marketing campaign (weight 0.01): The game is likely to go unnoticed by most players due to the lack of a marketing campaign.

Emotions:
No emotions}